Recently, endoscopes have been extensively used whereby internal areas or organs within a body vessel or cavity may be observed by inserting an elongated insertable part of the endoscope through a catheter inserted into a body vessel or cavity, or directly into the body vessel or cavity itself. An endoscope, as used herein, is an instrument for examining the interior of a bodily canal or hollow organ. A catheter, on the other hand, is a tube inserted into a bodily channel, such as a vein, to distend or maintain an opening to a body vessel or cavity. Therapeutic treatments may be made by inserting surgical instruments or fluid through a treatment channel of the catheter. Various commercially available endoscopes and catheters exist for introducing into body vessels or cavities a variety of surgical tools, fluids, and other materials, such as radiographic contrast materials, angioplasty balloons, fiberoptic scopes, laser lights, and cutting instruments. Also, various techniques and systems have been developed for guiding or steering the catheters in the body vessels or cavities for use of these tools, fluids, and other materials.
In order to take pictures of an image observed by the endoscope or catheter and sent through an image guide such as the fiberoptic scope, a light source or imaging source apparatus must be included for adjusting exposure of an image within the body vessel or cavity. Various endoscope imaging systems have been used which supply a light source and a camera as separate devices for an imaging system. Examples of these separate devices in various systems may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,469 by Uchimura entitled "Endoscope Light Source Apparatus with Detachable Flash Unit"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,807 by Kawashima entitled "Endoscope Connecting Apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,915 by Akutsu et al. entitled "Light Source Apparatus For An Endoscope"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,875 by Kato entitled "Intravascular Endoscope Apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,816 by Hug et al. entitled "Inspection/Detection System With A Light Module For Use In Forensic Applications"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,856 by Noguchi entitled "Endoscope Light Source Apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,413 by Nakamura et al. entitled "Blood-Vessel Endoscope System for Storing Frozen Picture in Synchronization with Heart Pulsation"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,142 by Ikuno et al. entitled "Video Scope System"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,133 by Kanno et al. entitled "Endoscope Light Source Apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,773 by Hibino et al. entitled "Endoscope Signal Processing Apparatus Using Sequential and Synchronous Imaging Devices"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,737 by Yazawa entitled "Imaging Apparatus for Endoscope"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,202 by Arakawa entitled "Video Endoscope System"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,586 by Danna et al. entitled "Connector Module for Video Endoscopic System"; U.S. Pat. No. B1 4,539,586 by Danna et al. entitled "Connector Module for Video Endoscope System"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,539 by Konomura entitled "Endoscopic Television Apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,092 by Miller entitled "Miniature Video Camera Means for Video System"; and U.S. Pat. Re. 33,854 by Adair entitled "Rigid Video Endoscope With [Heat] Sterilization Sheath."
These separate systems, however, typically have the camera within an end of the endoscope itself which reduces the usefulness during surgical procedures because the physician typically has minimal control over the movement of the end of the endoscope. Also, these devices do not provide a catheter or other means for access to the body vessel or cavity while simultaneously viewing the vessel or cavity. Further, some of these devices provide a camera and a light source separate from the endoscope, but do not provide surgical access through a portion of the endoscope or a catheter and require control of two separate imaging sources which is awkward for a physician to handle during surgery because the physician needs to concentrate on the surgical procedure and not the operation of the separate imaging and light sources. Hence, additional personnel are often needed to control these various systems.
Other systems, such as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,404 by Barath et al. entitled "Laser Endoscope", provide the light source and camera in the same housing, but do not provide a catheter or endoscope for the system which allows the physician to access the body vessel or cavity for surgical purposes.
Therefore, there is still a need for a catheter imaging apparatus that allows for the control and manipulation of the catheter and imaging source while simultaneously using surgical tools, such as fiberoptic scopes or the like, and fluids needed for medical operations to thereby allow the physician to positionally locate, isolate, and view problem areas within the body vessel or cavity.